Trapped in an Elevator
by Mouse in the Midnight
Summary: Eleventh Doctor/Reader. Reader is late for work and becomes trapped in an elevator with the Doctor.


Ordinarily, you avoided elevators when you could.

For one thing, you were claustrophobic. Elevators did not tend to be very spacious.

For another thing, you were cursed with low blood pressure. You would press yourself against the wall of an elevator just to prevent yourself from falling flat on its floor when it took off. Even when you did that, your head would spin with the beginnings of motion sickness until you were able to stumble off the elevator.

This morning, you were in a bit of a rush.

You had slept through your first two alarms and had barely heard your third. You had had a total of fifteen minutes to get ready and get to work. Your office was on the third floor of a building. There was a staircase you could have taken, but you were already carting your overstuffed bag, and you really didn't think trucking up several sets of stairs was going to cut it.

Today, you opted for the elevator.

 _At least this stupid thing will finally do some good._ You mused dryly as you hopped in. _It's gonna save me time. And my butt. From being fired._

You struggled to catch your breath that you had lost while racing through the parking lot, reaching to the dashboard to press the third floor's button. Before the elevator doors could completely close, however, a wiry hand reached through and stopped them.

"Pardon me. Sorry." A tall man, with messy dark-brown hair parted to the side and combed slightly over his angled facial features, stepped through the doors and onto the elevator. He adjusted his bowtie and cast you an apologetic smile. "Fifth floor, please."

"Sure." You breathed out, your eyes annoyedly scrutinizing him. You were already late without this suspenders-sporting stranger getting in the way. Reluctantly, you pressed the button for his destination, and then pressed the button for your own destination.

The man leaned against the wall opposite you, crossing his hands in front of him. "Lovely morning, eh?"

"Just peachy." Your breathing pace had at last evened out, but the words still exited your mouth via a huff.

That was the moment when the lights above the two of you began to flicker. You and the man looked upwards, brows furrowing in surprise and confusion. He stepped forward to inspect the elevator's dashboard, and you found the ability to breathe again escaping your lungs.

"Bit of technical difficulties?" The man suggested, his eyebrows lifting over an innocent grin. "Power outage?"

"Uh… _what_?" You closed your eyes for a moment as you processed that theory. "This thing isn't going to shut down while _we're_ in here, is it?"

The lights blinked once more, accompanied by an unpleasant screeching of gears grinding, and the entire elevator ceased motion.

"Oh. We've stopped." The man commented.

"Uh, thanks for the update, Captain Obvious?" You hissed, feeling the claustrophobia beginning to settle its way into your already frazzled nerves. You moved over to the dashboard, frantically pressing any and all of the buttons there. "Come on, come on. Wake up, you stupid elevator!"

"That may not be the smartest idea." The man warned calmly.

You ignored him and frustratedly rammed your fist into the dashboard, simultaneously mashing numerous buttons in the process. The lights blinked off completely.

 _Waaay to go._

You were trapped in a darkened elevator, with a stranger wearing a tweed coat and a bowtie, late for your job and about to pass out from sheer fright.

"Ohhhh, my God." You backed up as far as you could, against the wall, trying and failing not to hyperventilate. "Oh, God. Oh, my God."

"Don't panic." The man's voice came to you through the darkness.

You looked up, trying to find him, but you couldn't have seen anything, anyway. Your vision was clouding from the dizziness.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Good. Good, Doc. I hope you know how to take care of a cardiac arrest victim." You gasped out.

You heard a bizarre whirring sound, and then a small light flickered on. Behind the green glow, you could just make out the defined outline of the man's face. His blue-green eyes rested on you, as he held the strange flashlight-shaped-like-a-screwdriver-whatever-it-is-you-were-about-to-pass-out-honestly.

You slid down to a seat on the floor. The feeling in your arms and legs was tingling and fading.

Just before your hands went completely numb, you felt a large, warm hand slip into your own. The man was kneeling beside you. He lifted your hand lightly, gently massaging the back of it with what was assumedly his thumb. Some amount of feeling returned to the clammy hand.

"Here, now, don't faint on me." The doctor's voice was soft and reassuring, yet firm and serious. "The elevator will undoubtedly start again. I need you to focus on regaining your consciousness."

"Y-… you're right…" You were suddenly ashamed of having shown weakness, particularly in front of a stranger for whom this was your first impression. You swallowed hard and forced yourself to breathe evenly. As you did so, your head ceased to spin and the feeling returned to your limbs.

"There, now. Do you feel able to stand?"

"Y-yeah… I got it."

You moved to your knees first, then reached up and seized the handlebars on the elevator walls. You grunted quietly and pulled yourself to a standing position. The doctor let go your hand and moved both of his hands to your waist, giving you stability when your shaky legs refused to do so.

You leaned against him for a moment until you were able to stand on your own two feet. _For someone who dresses like a nerd, he certainly is solid…_

"Excellent. Excellent." The doctor removed his hands from your waist and clapped them together once. You jumped slightly, startled at his action. "Now all we need to do is wait for the elevator to start up again!"

"H-how are you so sure that it will?" You sighed, removing one of your hands from the handlebars and using it to rub your sternum, against which your heart was throbbing.

"Trust me." He responded. "It will. And we'd best be prepared when it does." He chuckled softly, as if he knew something you did not.

"What? What's so funny? Why do we need to be prepared?" You searched for his face again in the darkness. "Wait, did you have anything to do with this?"

"Well, I suppose, in a way, one might say that I did…"

Your mouth opened wide to demand more answers, but before any words could leave it, the overhead lights came back on. Both of you blinked, grimacing as your eyes readjusted to the amount of light exposure.

"Ah! That was sooner than I was expecting." The doctor smiled around at each elevator wall, as the machine began to move upwards again.

Your head went back spinning from the elevator's motion. You pressed your back into the wall. _What the actual_ heck _is going on… this guy is some kind of psychopathic stalker. I bet he rigged the elevator to stop so that he could "save" me. As soon as these doors open… I don't care which floor I'm on; I'm getting away from him!_

It felt like hours had passed before the doors of the elevator at last opened unto sweet freedom. You lost a shoe, but didn't even bother to go back and get it. Out those cursed doors you darted.

You immediately halted, in front of a flock of odd, cylindrical grey-and-blue robotic things.

"What the…?"

Large guns seemed to extend from what must have been their heads and pointed towards you.

"… _**EXTERMINATE**_!"

The doctor yanked you out of the path of the giant laser beam one of the robots fired. You fell backwards into his arms. He gazed down at you with a crooked, almost sassy smirk.

"I did tell you to be prepared." The doctor claimed your hand in his with an excruciatingly tight grip, then took off down the hallway of the floor you had exited upon. "Run!"

"What the heck is going on?" You shrieked, doing your best to keep up with this stranger, as the even stranger robots commenced pursuit of you both. "Who are you?!"

"I told you, I'm the Doctor!" He replied, rounding a corner. "Who are you?"

"… (Y-… Y/N)!"

"Well, (Y/N), I take it you've never encountered a Dalek before. Put simply, they are responsible for the destruction of my home planet, and soon, your planet will meet the same fate! I am here to stop them."

"A what? What's a Dalek? Home planet? Are you saying you're an alien? I was just trying to go to work!"

The doctor skidded to a stop and ducked into a tight corner, pulling you into the crevice with him. The robotic creatures raced past you and away down the corridors, unaware of the hiding place you both had taken refuge in.

Able to breathe now that you were no longer in any immediate threat, you both gasped for breath. You looked up at your mad-man saviour in pure bewilderment. You were uncomfortably close to him. Your head was pressed up against his chest.

 _I… am so fired._

The Doctor's crooked grin shone out again, past his brilliant red bowtie, down at you. "Would you like to join me?"


End file.
